Questions can be Dumb and Smart! (maybe)
25 Jan 2024
When asking a question, how often do you think what you are asking is smart or dumb? Oftenly, it’s usually how dumb it may sound like because sometimes, you just don’t want to sound dumb. Questions, no matter how dumb they may come off, remember that smarter doesn’t also mean it will be better. Unfortunatey as reassuring that may be, smart questions are super important for software engineers and of the like. Programming has gotten so much more broad and vast, programmers/coders definitely need to get more precise and specific.
Food For Thought
Smart questions, or what is considered to be smart by Eric Raymond’s essay titled, “How To Ask Questions The Smart Way,” are questions - to summarize - that can’t be found anywhere no hard you look or who you ask. They are questions that make your mind really ponder and makes you desire for the answer. They are precise and are worded properly, grammatically, and thorough. These questions are in a sense, a food for thought. Of course only in a sense because the answer is what mostly desired. A “smart” question that a user asked on StackOverflow is, “What is the most efficient way to deep clone an object in JavaScript?” This question is rather simple yet has more depth to it at face value. The question asks for an efficient way to code in JavaScript and that is something you can’t really find on Google from a simple search. You would need to constantly research and compare certain coding ways/styles to really understand and answer the question of what would be an efficient way. This question due to its “smartness”, it gathered over a dozen answers and over 2.9 million views. Albeit, the question was asked over 15 years ago, though, it was asked in a way for many others to look at.
Food for What?
On the other hand, there are “dumb” questions. These questions and the criteria to fulfill said question are more broad and wide. They can be worded perfectly fine, but the weight/context behind the question could be easily answered on the front page of a Google search. One example would of a “dumb” question is, “How can I access and process nested objects, arrays, or JSON?” This question was asked roughly over 11 years ago and it is to be said Google and JSON came out way before this question was posted. It is simple and has a simple answer to it, and that being through textbooks/websites that can easily provide the answer. “Dumb” questions are often asked way more than smarter questions, although without it, how could we create the smart questions? Without any “dumb” questions to look at, how can we develop and change our questions to be smart?
Put More Thought in that Thought (please)
Questions are like a key to a door. Find the right key, and the door will unlock. Consider your questions more in your head before just blatantly writing it down in an online forum or speaking it aloud. Do your research and think of how easily it can be answered through Google. Smart questions can be formulated more easily now thanks to the internet and how it has aged over the years. As a result, the dumb questions you got can be answered with a snap of your fingers.